most of the fear in the markets this morning is certainly not here now and not present because we're only down 27 points. s&p is down less than 6 or just about 6. the nasdaq is down almost 8 points. not that they aren't watching the situation in cyprus very closely, certainly, but they really do feel somewhat immune from that, ty, in today's trading session. right now down 28 points. not bad. >> john carney called it a cyprus thing a black swan. it's a tiny black swan.

>> it's a gossling. >> a duckling. we've seen these things before and maybe become immune to the immediate fear of them. that's it for us. thank you for joining us today. >> see you tomorrow. "street signs" begins right now. have a great afternoon, everybody. ♪ >> i had a play that to start the show. bull market, bear market, cyprus rocking the world with a surprise new tax. is this smaller country the next big black swan? could this new tax happen right here? we've got all the angles and the story that is shaking investors and a full road map coming up. plus, is the board of one big bank losing faith in its ceo? good, bad, and down right ugly in housing. i cannot do this right now, mandy. >> well, you know what, we are

well off the lows of the day, first, the dow was down 109 points earlier on but still possibly the first two-day losing streak for all the major averages in nearly a month. keep in mind though we did have a real good for a while, right? we ended ten positive sessions in a row last week. so some say a pullback was to be expected at some point. classic flight to safety bid. gold is back above 1600 for the first time since late february which is pulling out gold stocks as well. rick santelli is in chicago. bob pisani at the nyse. a lot of people are saying staying the correction was not out of the question and this might be as good a catalyst as any. >> listen, i think it's outrageous what's been done and proposed here. the markets are not shows tremendous signs of fear. correction in half an hour. a lot of people coming off the lows on an intraday on the dow. once europe closed we would do nothing but head downward. off our highs. literally went positive for a

second in the dow but it hasn't been that bad. this is all want very normal range for the dow today. volume is a bit on the light side, by the way. no avalanche selling going on. take a look at the btk. major european etf and you can see europe came off the lows. they weren't selling europe to go into the united states. europe was coming off the lows right from the early part of the day for them. this is that bgk. look at the sectors. while, yes, financials are weak throughout the day. down around 1%. telecom was on the upside. most of the rest of them, this is small damage considering some of the concerns over the weekend about the unprecedented nature about what happened in cyprus. i want to note china, keep an eye on china. this is the major etf. six-month low. property crisis up rather notably month over month. we had the numbers out over the weekend. mandy, back to you. >> glad you finished on time because arguably, much worse problem than cyprus. let's get over to rick santelli.

to what extent, rick, are u.s. treasuries catching a bid in that classic flight to safety play? >> the classic flight to safety is like that beer commercial. it's flight to safety light. only down for a handful of basis points and it hasn't changed. whether you look at our ten-year or the french ten-year, the german ten-year, our stock market, the german stock market, the french stock market, we see all markets are basically ignoring this. now, is it the right thing? is it the wrong thing? i can't tell you but to see a run like we've had in equities and to see after this mini black swan we're only down 23, it gives you a good glimpse into how complacent we may be. in the end, what's going on not only is due to confiscation in cyprus, it's confiscation without due process. they haven't even taken a vote yet. >> rick, thank you very much for that. cyprus is a tiny island nation roughly the size of the state of connecticut.

it is 5,000 miles away from new york. gdp is smaller than america's least productive state, vermont. no offense to vermont. why in the world does cyprus matter here? does it t matter here? senior international correspondent michelle caruso cabrera who is boarding a flight to cyprus right when this show is over. >> two reasons why you should think about investor impact for cyprus. as part of the bailout the country agreed to tax insured deposits. that's whooig like waking up in the united states and discovering that the bank that had fdic insurance up to $250,000 limit suddenly didn't count anymore. you're going to lose some of your money. real violation of trust there. it's feared that what if that spreads across europe if other issue for investor impact is the bailout deal for the banks skipped basic rules we tend to follow. a bank goes bust, the equity goes to zero. senior debt holder goes to seoor row. insured deposits never get

touched. they didn't do that here. it's still unclear what they're going to do with the debt holders. once again, legal unpredictability in europe. you can't believe anything any of these guys say. >> i don't want to go against our own network's graphics but i've been calling this a bail-? >> it is. >> people of cyprus, poor people, doesn't matter how much you have in the bank, they're the ones that are going to be funding some of these bondholders and banks. it's coming from the inside, not the outside in. >> yeah. technical term that you would use i was just trying to be a little more -- >> there's not a whole lot of money. >> they hads to go after the deposits because that's where the money was. could you have just gone after the uninsured deposits which would have been logical. >> all over the world they make stupid decisions every day. venezuela nationalized the industry. should we wake up the next morning and worry the u.s. will nationalize the energy? i don't think because they did something stupid, other than

that, that it was approved by the ecb, i don't think in italy or spain or the united states certainly we should not be worried about it. >> i think the over all message is, greece will never restructure and greece restructured. we will never trigger a credit default swap. they triggered credit default swaps. the depositors will never be touched. depositors were touched. senior bondholders are never going to be touched. guess what, they're next. it's this european -- >> outlying small countries that have very, very little impact on the global situation. that has become true. >> but they are part of the european union and the you row zone. >> are we going to take money back from depositors in italy? >> you know this is cyprus making this decision. this is the big -- >> whoa. >> this is germany, this is france making this decision for cyprus. >> more germany than france, i would say, but, yes. >> i want to ask you, one of the reasons we've been buying long. to what extent do you think the

fed might make references to this. >> i think -- >> couldn't happen here. >> they've already made reference to this. they talked about it in our prior meeting where's they said they see some diminution in the global risk but it's still to the downside. still concern about it. part of the reason why they're in this current qe regime that they're in right now which is open ended because they've been blind sided by the idea that everyone seemed okay and europe would flare-up. they're in this regime until things get in better shape notice united states and europe. if you go to the poll we have, cnbc survey, we asked people, we're going to have the results of this tomorrow, if the current lack of crisis mentality is a lack of concern of real progress or a sign of temporary and 64% say it's only temporary. so the market has not been fooled by the quiet in europe. just as surely as the federal reserve, i don't believe, has been fooled by the quiet. >> do you think this would be a good thing by default of the united states bringing money here because it's safer by comparison, good for our financial markets, good for the economy?

>> well, i think more broadly, the united states has been on a campaign to try to attack tax havens all over the world. including switzerland and other placeses. to the extent the depositors do lose money in cyprus which is a major tax haven, that would further u.s. policy in that regard. >> you know how you will lose your money in this country. you don't know how you will lose your money in europe. it's been different every single time they've done it. >> fair enough. we woke up this morning to look like stocks would tank on the cyprus news. but look, dow is fighting back. only down a couple points. as i tweeted out last night i think the news in europe could be good news to u.s. stocks. do our guests agree? you've been here listening to this conversation. liesman is doing this. president of street mark global and joining us now from the west coast, what do you think, sort of to mandy's point to my tweet last night, is this good news for us? >> it is clearly good news.

i think i was bullish on u.s. treasuries before. i'm even more bullish right now. >> on treasuries? >> on u.s. treasuries. >> not stocks. >> no, not stocks. bonds are bulling but they're good at this time. if money is coming back you have mini rally in u.s. treasuries today and they could go down if this situation extends to spain, italy, in coming days. that's the first part. the second is, as michelle said earlier, a lot of firsts here. particularly, the ecb used to be a chairman to supporter of the depositors. here they are joining an imposition of attack and loss on the depositors and completely calls into question what the central bank loan is supposed to be in a crisis like this. >> if we rule out the worse case scenarios here in terms of global investors, let me bring you into the conversation because one of the biggest fears is if there is a capital slide or a deposit slide from areas

not just southern europe, stabilize the global financial system, which includes us. this is a scenario that is possible in your mind. >> well, we have seen today there's no bank run in spain or italy and that's the key. they didn't think, wow, we're going to be next. we're going have our deposits confiscated. so at the moment, this certain of financial zombie apocalypse is still within the island of cyprus. if it escapes then all bets are off. i think where you're going to put your money if you're a depositor, very few safe places to put your money, the bank isn't safe. shared certificates of equities gives an uplift for equities around the world. if you don't want your money in a account owning next to interest rates, where are you going to put it? one place is the shared certificate. >> or credit suisse, or some of the big banks that are not based in cyprus, greece, or spain. >> yes, but if your europe is basically violated a kov nentd that depositors are safe. so they are now less safe.

and if you start to worry, you want to put it somewhere else. you put it in gold, for example, and i think equities is going to benefit from the thought of where else can i put my money? i don't want it all in one place so they can come and get it. >> mandy, i wouldn't think the satisfaction that spain and italy. if you remember what happened at the greece problems late in 2009 when there was a change in government, it took quite a few months for the crisis to double up. sing we are still in line in terms of having difficulties spread to other countries. and you saw big increase in the price of gold. that is unrest in the investment community. >> i was just going to offer the equity rally. it's not one built on a very solid foundation.

they all tend to be off. it's like your money is confiscated by the government. that's the sort of thing that happens in africa. not in the west. so i mean, it really kind of puts a question mark over everything. >> i would just offer when i look at the markets today and i had a quote here from citi group if you have it in the back. i think it's wot sharing. citi group has come to the conclusion that the fears of contagion are really overrated. that cyprus is a unique situation. and i'ming looking at what you're looking at. >> haven as an offshore. >> a lot of money. >> about getting back at the russians. >> yeah. >> there it is right there. contagion risks are overrated. >> it's just not the origin. it's the size, the size of the banking system there is huge. >> three times gdp. >> no, no, no, eight times gdp. the average in europe is three times the gdp. here in the u.s. it's only one times gdp. they did that on purpose. >> some monday my is from russian. >> foreign money. >> we don't though that it's criminal money.

it's packed opt plimized at a minimum is the way they describe it. they sought that money for sure. >> they are known for having lax money laundering laws. >> no comparison in the you r eurozone. >> excellent. >> switzerland was in this situation. >> going back to the initial point, greece was a very small country as well. 2% of the gdp of the eurozone and created a big problem which started that and spent the rest of the region. >> the size of the country is not as relevant. >> i'm not saying i not rel vants. that would maybe be the new black swan. >> clearly to the -- >> major backstop, from the ecb, greece created a big problem. now that this backstop, is in place, i think problems have to be bigger in order to be global. >> that's the final word. by the way, it looks like so know evil, speak no evil, and hear no evil, don't you think? >> i don't look like a monkey.

>> thank you to all of you. thank you, as well, for joining in on this. >> safe travels, too, michelle. >> see you tomorrow. >> where are you going? >> yeah. >> be careful. >> you're going to be reporting on cnbc live from noon tomorrow? >> we hope to be, yeah. depends, flight delays, et cetera. we'll see. >> we'll look forward to it. on deck, the good, the bad, and the down right ugly in housing right now. >> and some retailer to reits, could this be the thing to turn jcpenney around?

it is a clint eastwood kind of housing market right now because there is some good, some bad, and some ugly. let's go with the bad because it is new news today. homebuilder confidence fell in march. it's been at a stand still for three months. most housing arguably has been pretty good, like the value of your home is probably going up. the s&p index jumped year over year. this that is the largest single gain since july 2006. and the ugly, foreclosures. national foreclosures start surging 10% in february, some states like nevada and maryland saw foreclosures starts spike more than 300% compared to a year ago. bank backlogs finally started to ease through. let's talk more about housing. joining us from usb and team investment. tanya, good, bad, and ugly. certainly more good, i think, than bad or ugly.

but some concerning signs lately. what's your take on housing nationally right now? >> well, i like that the market still needs time to strengthen. it means that it's really an organic up spring in housing and we're not having all positive news so there's no bubble which everybody likes to use that term. as far as foreclosures go, it's a good thing there's more foreclosures. one, it's balancing the market. it's creating checks and balances. two, it means that those judicial states that had a lot of foreclosures are getting through the meyer and really getting rid of the foreclosures on their books. it gives buyers products to buy. >> turning the bad and ugly into the good, you're seeing the glass half full situation. what kaurch would you be in? >> i'm glad tanya said it because economists, we're always negative. it's good to hear someone else saying foreclosures are a good thing. you do want foreclosures to happen. you want to do the market clearing levels. you're seeing that average such as housing, it's with the financial crisis as a whole.

when you let the market clear things go better for everyone. >> you're leaving yourself hopefully with the good. >> yes, yes. >> you know, much like when you bathe your kids, right? the kids are still in the tub when the water is empty. >> i believe that housing starts, the drop is going to be temporary. answer the question for our viewers why, without using the phrase present sale subcomponent. >> it's simple. there's more people, more people working, and kids don't like to live in their parents' basements when they graduate from college. you combine those three things and you get a pick-up in housing activity. >> a lot of oi viewers are in this parents basement. >> the other thing though is to go to what he's saying is you have to remember that people started foreclosuring about five to seven years ago. foreclosing and short selling. those people that have been renting and creating this renter nation that we talked about for so long are coming back and starting to buy again. those people are going to come back to the mark and create more

buyers who want personal family homes, not just investors. he's correct. >> this morning on "squawk on the street," we had someone and i asked him if there was a magic number, negative number for interest rates that would impact his sales. here's what he had to say. >> i believe has rates rise business less get stronger. people sitting on the fence. will come back into the market and business will get even better. >> tanya, i know a ceos job is to be filled with housing hopium. do you believe that? it's a good thing for housing? >> no, i think that you actually -- people should be talking advantage of these rates because regardless, rates are going to go up. what we need to remember is when i bought my first house in '98 i paid 13%. >> i still made the payment. we are a nation that unfortunately lives on payments. long that payment works for

people people don't understand the interest rate effect. it's all about the payment. they may buy less of a house with a higher interest rate but they are still going to buy. >> i don't want to pay a higher rate either. i guess the ceo was saying this because if the economy is strong, that's why the rates will rise. >> what do you buy into? good for housing or bad for housing? >> i'm not going to say. >> better for housing. one thing negative about the fed's action is they told people zero rates and for a long period of time. let's move now. if you see mortgage rates go up they're going miss the boat and near going to try to get on as they are leaving the dock. >> okay. thank you very much. >> they have to come up. they do have to come up with better criteria to lend on though. if they raise rates and had better criteria, wasn't so difficult to get a loan, more people would be able to pay that rate. >> drew, tanya, thank you for for joining us. mandy is going to us a trail

gentleman next week. going back home for the first time in a while. we're going to talk about currencies because we want to know, will mandy's u.s. dollar paycheck go further or just get slaughtered in melbourne next week. in the meantime, jpmorgan losing the faith of his board, the inside story coming right your way. [ female announcer ] it's time for the annual shareholders meeting. ♪ there'll be the usual presentations on research. and development. some new members of the team will be introduced. the chairman emeritus will distribute his usual wisdom. and you? well, you're the chief life officer. you just need the right professional to help you take charge. ♪ ...amelia... neil and buzz: for teaching us that you can't create the future...

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i want to show you what is happening with the markets because as we stand the dow is up by three points. remember at the beginning of trading this morning on all the cyprus fears that was down by 109 points. i'm going to do a shoutout to brian that otherwise he would do for himself because he said by the end of trade today he believed the dow would turn positive. jim cramer said -- >> we sort of argued about it on "squawk on the street" off camera and on camera. you never know. listen, mandy, here's the reality. you would agree with this. no bad news anymore. right? >> right. >> every time there's bad news, don't worry, the fed or ecb or somebody is going to print. there's no bad news in this market. not like i took a genius move to think, the more people are going to say, don't worry because we will be bailed out.

>> always got a backstop. always got ben bernanke horve vering over overhead or become immune to bad news headlines. you're going to see that tomorrow on page 6. let's go. the cyprus news has a lot of wealthy people here in america questioning their offshore money havens. robert frank is here with more. the big question is, is your money safe? >> that is the big question. cyprus may seem ro remoat but the american wealthy are looking at the offshore havens. cyprus was a classic tax payment with light regulation, low taxes and almost complete privacy. russians invested $119 billion in cyprus in 2011 and accounted for more than a third of the total deposits but the new department tax, let's call it what it is, a wealth tax, has americans wondering about other tax havens. also about the rewards of offshoring. wealthy americans have between 40 and $70 billion a year in offshore wealth. now it's according to congress.

favorite tax havens are in the caribbean, mostly cayman islands, ba ma'am hamm whats, british ver gin islands. globally, channel islands, singapore, switzerland. they told me this morning that wealthy clients are now demanding more information about their overseas accounts. asking about the banks. they're asking about the countries themselves and the fiscal and capital conditions of these countries now, the caribbean countries do have that british legal history that makes them more stable but little is known about the capital structure about the offshore banks and governments, they are notoriously fragile and vulnerable to a lot of corruption. many say cyprus cannot happen here. bottom line, it's shown that wealthy countries can seem like tax havens and seem like a wealth shelter but they can quickly become a wealth trap. >> more scrutiny on the way. >> not a bad thing. >> thank you very much. the euro meantime really slid big. the government of cyprus hasn't

even voted to approve the package yet. that decision is delayed until tomorrow evening. what now? joining us, author and up establisher of the update, andy bush. andy, we have been taking here on the show here today the idea that the problems in cyprus could by default be good for us because we have at least 30 shares in the laundry basket. will this be good? >> it already has been but the problem is is that this really just euro centric. obviously it underscores just how bad europe handles their issues. everybody out there, norm awilly when you have a housing crisis you get everybody in the same room. bankers, people who own the debt. you close the banks, whatever you want to do over the weekend. you get a deal. you get a hair cut on the debt that the banks own. you reopen on monday. you let people getting a cess to their money but you devalue the currency at the same time. obviously in europe they didn't devalue the currency. in this case for cyprus because of all the deposits that we're

in, they fought they could take a hair cut on the foreign depositors that were there. a what a mistake. this is the worst thing they could have done and obviously they didn't anticipate all the ripples from the pond going out. >> what -- you guys have been going on. italy and spain are up, will their banks handle it in some similar fashion? we don't know. this is the worst thing you could have done. >> what is the worst case scenario for europe? how much of that is just a knee-jerk reaction and the possibility that cyprus may leave the eurozone. >> right. that probably wouldn't be bad for the euro if they left but what's worse about this is this creates additional ease for investors out there look at bank stocks and you have seen it get hit. for the euro, it's always been weak. we've already seen it come off and seen it come off in the face of other currencies like your own kurccurrency. specifically, when they had much better than expected unemployment data and the british pound rallied as well.

again, it really depends on the individual currency. europe is just a mess. and they -- the more they have politics involved the worse it gets. >> t got it, andy. you just answered our question about whether or not mri aussie dollar will go far or not so far when i go back to australia next week. thanks. breaking news right now. amman jafers of washington newsroom. the treasury may be making comments about cyprus? >> yes. ve a statement. now that we're a couple of seconds past that, the treasury department says it is monitoring the situation in cyprus closely and secretary lew has been speaking with their european counterparts. it's important that cyprus and euro area partners work to resolve the situation in a way that is responsible and fair and insures financial stability. that's the statement here from the treasury department. of course, a lot of the top treasury brass today on are on their way or already are in china. so, for secretary jack lew's first major over seas trip.

now china and cyprus on their minds as well, guys. >> i wish i put a bet on what treasury would say because they have said exactly what you would expect them to say. >> you just did this for me. >> got my eye on you, cyprus. got my eye on you. watching you. >> interesting language here. if you just have one second, they say they would like to resolve the situation in a why that is responsible and fair. i think we have to get a little bit more sense of what treasury means by responsible and fair. >> better than being irresponsible. >> coming up next, debate on surgical robot is really heating up. greenberg is going to be here in a moment. >> could jcpenney finally be on to something. the headline that is popping the stock. tell you what it is and debate tell you what it is and debate it, coming up.

and the dow is now negative again. it was briefly positive. let's get to street talk right now. the stocks that might be under the radar under all the cyprus news. hewlett-packa hewlett-packard. >> up 3%. morgan stanley upgraded it to an overweight. cash is king. they see three drivers as shares. convergent with eps, grow in fiscal 2014. and stronger free cash flow, timing of cash. see a theme? >> i see a theme. >> all about cash. >> cash. let's see if we can keep it going. best buy is getting an upgrade. >> and stock is up nearly 3 1/2%. jpmorgan, moving best buy to an overweight. price target 29d from 25. that rating is based on what they call face the new management. ongoing effort to regain price in the leadership after theyed a bit best buy gave that up to amazon. and tv exposure. if you buy a home, maybe it has

an extra room, you need an extra tv to watch what? >> it's america so we need to a. tv in every single room if not two. >> to what watch what? >> cnbc. >> what show? >> cnbc "street signs." >> thank you. >> i got it right. you know how to pick, another upgrade. >> all of these upgrades. >> all nervous this morning, good news. upgrading to buy rating. $22 to 110 bucks. look at that. they see a bunch. up $17. they're confident the transition period is an over hanging the stock. it's finally over. so there you go. upgrade for utx. >> downgrade? no, it's another upgrade. this one is verizon. it's upgrade for buy citi. >> citi raising verizon to a buy. i don't think wireless fundamentalss will remain solid. still have landline phones. margin improvement will continue. also, interestingly enough, they think there's a chance that verizon wireless can go over

vodafone stake in verizon wireless. vodafone owns 44% of verizon wireless. they wanted that back forever. citi group says that might actually happen. >> jcpenney is having a monster day after oppenheimer said the retailer's big bet on joe fresh appears to be paying off. let's bring in retail adviser and cnbc contributor and general all around fashionista, stacey, cramer says that it's not the place to be right now. i guess it depends on whose apparel it is. >> yes. that's very true. i mean, if you just line it up, we just got through with q4 earnings. and input costs for very easy this year. you had this natural growth margin lift there. and also now that we're going into q-1 we're facing really difficult comparisons from an early spring last year. so, you know, most of the apparel guys that have given to guidance recently is pretty disappointi disappointing. that includes the teen space and on up the chain here.

i would certainly be cautious in g1. >> you know what, stacey, also isi group came up a note that jcpenney could in 300 stores lease out space. actually lease the space. in other words, almost become a reit, a mall unto itself. do you think that's possible? >> right. so let's take the basics here. let's pretend knew we knew nothing about jcpenney and didn't know their traffic douz one 17%. one of the smartest landlords around just sold half of their position in jcpenney. so you take that and make-believe and say. which direction is it going in? let's take the space. let's take that concept. completely unproven yet. we don't know what the real estate is worth. if you take the stores themselves, even the topper forming ones do ju jest that there are rea retailors out there that can pick up a couple hundred stores to lease out, i

think is a lease when everybody is closing stores. >> you know, i'm wondering in terms of the this being implemented by the ceo of penny. what extent can no one say no to this guy and that's going to be an on tackle in terms of turning this around for good. >> i think that's one of the most important points here. we've heard in the past week some suggestions that ron johnson is out. no, he's in. he's not out. he's not leaving. he has no plans to leave. but the bottom line here is e. he has not tested the concept. he just rolled it out. he surrounded himself with a culture of yes. and if you say no and challenge him, you're out. look at the layoffs that have been going on. so i think when you're talking about a turn around in retail, you really need a team that's willing to challenge the leader and say, you know what, this might not be working. >> that's a great point, mandy, because what do we know about jcpenney's board? are they sheep or lions.

>> i don't know. >> that should probably be another segment. >> do you know, stacy? >> no, i think that the retail expertise on the board is a bit light here. so i think again when you look at a management team you want to see that people are challenging the premise. so now we see ron johnson roll out something that's not tested. he's now coming around and saying i've made mistakes. great. we want to know there's a team as we go forward. again, challenging his assumptions and not letting i'm just plow through without challenges. >> we have to leave it there but thank you for joining us today. coming up next, we've got herb and he's been doing a big investigation into this, following this stocks for some time. you might know if you watch us. he joins us with misspecial report next. and next up as well, smoke them if you can find them. just wait until you hear what new york mayor michael bloomberg

is butting into this time. but first, bill griffith on the preview of "the closing bell." >> should be interesting. we have three huge exclusive interviews ahead. former treasury secretary larry summers weighs in on the question bev all been asking today, whether europe's crisis will affect our money and your investment. and meredith whitney is here. very bullish on one of our u.s. banks. stick around to find out which one. rumors have been swirl for months that cit group is for sale. chairman and ceo john thain responds to that speculation coming up.

he's back at it again. this time he's targeting smokers. he wants retail shops to hide all tobacco products be hind the counter or behind a curtain. if the proposed legislation passes new york will be the first u.s. city to have such a ban. untightive surgical stock is up 4% after positive analyst comments. herb greenberg is here with more on the couldn't tro controversy surrounding the company's prob t

robotic surgical device. >> stocks performance can be attributed to several factors. revolutionary technology allows him to use the robot's arms from as far as ten feet away. creative and what some might say and would say, critics say, is an aggressive campaign that has made the da vinci a must have tool for all hospitals. it has spread why spread acceptance, hysterectomy, and today even gallbladder surgery. but as cnbc investigation have learned some critics have been raising a red flag about the safety of robotic surgery. both gynecological surgeon and an attorney spoke to me recently about his pending litigation against them. he claims a big problem with the robot lies with the electrical energy the robot uses. >> this energy coming through

the robot, coming through the arm of the robot, to the bellity of the patient to the instrument, and that there were defeks in the installation of the arms and also the a. defect in this area of the instrument that was causing inadvertent burns to occur. sometimes the surgeon wouldn't even see. >> shawn todd is a client who told me she suffered burns through her bladder through a routine partial hysterectomy. the it only became evident when she wasn't able to urinate properly and rushed to emergency surgery a week after the original procedurprocedure. >> he said, ms. todd, your kidneys are backed up. i said, is it kind of ike eurythmic poisoning? he said, no, you're septic. your other organs are starting to shut down. it was a nightmare. it is something that i will never forget. >> but for other surgeons like this doctor regarded as one of

the world's leading experts in prostate surgery in robotics, the da vinci is his surgical tool of choice. >> in fact, if you look at it from a surgical standpoint, every surgeon's dream is to get to see exactly what he or she is doing, get to do it and which is not the blood. >> we have been digging into both sides of the da vinci debate. both sides are prominent. the critics voices are getting louder. the american congress of obstetricians and gynecologists released a statement saying robotic surgery is not the only or the best minimally invasive approach for hysterectomy. nor is it the most cost effect. they declined to comment on any pending litigation. but regarding the claims of problems with energy the robot uses in its instruments using mono polar energy, the company says they have been used in open and lap skopic surgery for

decades and they're confident it deploys mono po lar energy in a safe and effective way. we will book the da vinci debate going for ward. >> very interesting report. thank you very much for that, herb. in terms of the stocks today, second best performer on the s&p 500. i believe that jcpenney is the best performing s&p 500 stock. city ahead, is jpmorgan's board losing faith in jamie dimon. we're going to debate that next.

jpmorgan is lower today. you could blame it on cyprus. but there may be an even bigger issue at the firm. the board's faith in jamie dimon. let's bring in kayla tausche with me. >> the grilling certainly didn't help that confidence that was on capitol hill pip think everyone was probably watching. while it was dimon's deputies that were in the hot seat friday, it was dimon that was the elephant in the room. a 301-page report painted him as an aggressor and executive that sought to hold information from regulators. at issue the fact that internal estimates showed potential

losses from the notorious london wale trades. that's making the board a little uneasy about potential legal fallout. last summer the board lawyered up by hiring sherman and sterling. the findings coincide with a vocal push by some pension funds to split the chairman and ceo role at jpmorgan. on that matter dimon himself has said the decision remains up to the board. he'll follow if they make that decision. he also cited examples like enron and worldcome where the role was split but it enabled no further checks and balances. last year 40% of jpmorgan shareholders actually voted in favor of a similar item that was on the shareholder proxy. that's going to be on the proxy again. they need 50% to actually have this become more than a formality. interesting to see what shareholders end up saying. >> very interesting, indeed.

thank you for the story, kayla. in the meantime most of the big banks are lower today. will cyprus end the rally in the financials? let's bring in paul miller, head of financial institutions research at fbi capital markets. to what extend, paul, are we just seeing today kind of like a fear move if you like without really digesting this and thinking maybe it's good for our u.s. banks because they look a whole lot safer by comparison? >> they do look safer. what it does do, you have a flight to safety again. people pulling money out of europe and putting it into u.s. treasuries that's going to drive to down the ten years. you need higher rates for these banks to really, really work. on top of that these banks have had a very nice run. we're not surprised they're taking a pause here. cyprus has to deteriorate a lot more before it really becomes a concern. you are now seeing the ten-year below 2% again. >> if we did see more fear out of europe, paul, what u.s. bank might be the most to avoid? >> you know, it's going to be

the bank of americas and the jpmorgans. it's going to be the big broker dealers that have a lot of relationships overseas. those are going to be the ones that are going to probably get shaken up the most. and right now they're also the ones that probably have been up the most over the last couple months. especially bank of america. >> of course, the next question is, which bank here in the united states is the least exposed to the problems in europe and the least likely to have any further fallout? >> well, you know, wells fargo. the regionals. pnc and usb also will benefit. not only that, with the 10-year remaining below 2% it's going to be good for mortgage banking. still a lot more refis. even though even some of these mortgage banks are down today, i think you're going to see if there's a flight to safety and if the 10-year goes down even more you'll see some of those mortgage banks rally, i believe. >> paul, you just heard kayla tausche's report. jpmorgan chase, jamie dimon. do you think there's faith being lost in jamie dimon? >> i find it hard to believe.

you really never know what goes on behind closed doors. a lot going on with this london wales trade has surprised analysts. we'd love to see the ceo and chairman be split as an analyst. i think that's the best thing for jpmorgan. i just don't know if the board has enough guts to do that. coming up next, when cyprus jumped the shark. [ male announcer ] when it comes to the financial obstacles military families face, we understand. our financial advice is geared specifically to current and former military members and their families. [ laughs ] dad! dad! [ applause ] [ male announcer ] life brings obstacles. usaa brings retirement advice. call or visit us online. we're ready to help. learn more with our free usaa retirement guide.

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